Grind Café is reopening as Maryann’s restaurant

JOSEPH PINCIARO PHOTO | In September, The Grind Cafe had a sign on its front door saying it would reopen soon. Four months later, it’s reopening as Maryann’s, a sit-down restaurant.

Wading River’s popular Grind Café has been reinvented as a sit-down American restaurant called Maryann’s, owner Maryann Iacono said Monday. A soft opening is planned for Jan. 2.

“My two daughters and I opened the Grind together,” said Ms. Iacono, a real estate agent who lives in Wading River. “My oldest daughter now has an 8-month-old baby and my youngest daughter just went back to school, so I’m doing what I always wanted to do, which is open up a real, grown-up restaurant.”

When it opens Thursday, Maryann’s will only serve lunch, Ms. Iacono said. Dinner service will be added at some point in the future and she’d like to eventually offer weekend brunch. Menu offerings will include a “little bit of everything,” Ms. Iacono said, including burgers, chops, fish and sandwiches.

The Grind Café, which opened on North Country Road in August 2011, sold specialty breakfast sandwiches, gourmet coffee and catering. Located in the site of the former Wading River Post Office, The Grind Café sits a few doors down from Amarelle, an upscale restaurant that closed in January 2012.

Over Labor Day weekend, The Grind Café suddenly closed its doors, leading some to speculate it was going out of business. At the time, multiple attempts to reach Ms. Iacono by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

But while The Grind Café did halt activity at the front of its storefront this fall, business at the eatery didn’t cease completely.

“The Grind never closed,” Ms. Iacono said. “We were always doing catering out of the back [of the building]. I just didn’t like the way the front of the building looked, so we painted and refinished the floors completely.”

The refurbishment took around four months to complete, Ms. Iacono said.